Extreme right protest canceled before a strained weekend in San Francisco

An extreme right-wing demonstration scheduled to take place on Saturday in San Francisco was canceled for fear of a “riot,” said the Patriot Prayer group, but another is held Sunday, at the end of a weekend Multiple high tension gatherings.

The group will instead hold a press conference and held another rally on Sunday in the nearby town of Berkeley. Numerous counter-demonstrations are maintained and San Francisco police have mobilized all of its agents to try to avoid overflows.

“After speaking to the police, we concluded that tomorrow (Saturday) is a trap and that many lives will be in danger,” said Joey Gibson, leader of Patriot Prayer, in a video on Facebook.

According to him, the radical left group Antifa or white supremacists would have mingled in the rally and “in our opinion it would have turned into enormous riot.”

The latter blames the mayor of San Francisco, Democratic MP Nancy Pelosi and “the media” who portray Patriot Prayer as a racist or white supremacist group, which is defended by Joey Gibson.

Instead of his protest, Patriot Prayer called to attend a press conference at Alamo Park at 14:00 (2100 GMT) Saturday in San Francisco. “We are asking the city to ensure our security,” he said.

The mayor of San Francisco Ed Lee then replied on Twitter that “no license has been requested or issued for Alamo Park this weekend” and that the city and the police are ready “for emergencies And spontaneous events “.

Joey Gibson replied with mistrust on Facebook saying that if it is illegal to “talk to the media in a public park, come and stop me”.

A “Walk against Hate” and another gathering, “Resist SF”, were to be held at the same place at Crissy Field in the very left-handed Californian town. The authorities feared overflows like in Phoenix this week or in Charlottesville earlier this month, when an anti-racist demonstrator was killed by a neo-Nazi sympathizer.

The organizers of these counter-rallies have not yet said whether they canceled, maintained or moved elsewhere.

“We are happy for Berkeley,” added Joey Gibson on Facebook, referring to another rally scheduled Sunday at Martin Luther King Park in this ultra-progressive city neighboring San Francisco, “for a day of freedom, spirituality, peace And patriotism “.

In the daily San Francisco Chronicle Friday, Amber Cummings, one of the organizers of the event, however, called for no attendance.